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Publications

This paper studies the linkage between trade and transport facilitation and ICT. It looks into the business needs of trade and transport facilitation (TTF) and how ICT can respond to these needs. The paper argues, new policy and regulatory directions for trade and transport facilitation and new operational requirements have emerged in recent years. Thus the design of ICT architecture and its organizational underpinnings has to change to respond to these new requirements.

The analysis followed three previous studies carried out between 2012 and 2014 covering South and South-West Asia, North and Central Asia, and South-East Asia, for a total of 27 countries across the continent.

The Asia-Pacific Migration Report 2015: Migrants' Contributions to Development, produced by the Asia-Pacific Regional Thematic Working Group on International Migration, including Human Trafficking, provides an insight into how labour migration, the dominant migration trend in the Asia-Pacific region, can contribute to development in countries of origin and destination in the Asia-Pacific region.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development sets forth seventeen goals (known as the Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs) which will define global development priorities for the next fifteen years. The importance of trade as an engine of growth is recognised in a number of targets, most notably within Goal 17 on partnerships for the goals and the means of implementation. This goal sets, among other objectives, a target for least developed countries to double their share of global exports by 2020.

This guide for policy makers and trainers provides a succinct overview of articles of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) particularly relevant to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and identifies examples of SME-specific programmes, measures and interventions that can support the implementation of such provisions. In order to maximize the benefits of the TFA for SMEs, it is suggested that the trade facilitation measures featured in the TFA be mainstreamed in the broader SME development and internationalization initiatives and programmes that may already be in place.

This Stats Brief introduces the work of the Asia-Pacific Expert Group on Disaster-related Statistics to develop statistical guidance on a basic range of disaster-related statistics. The initial focus of the work pertains to disaster occurrences and immediate impacts of disasters. One of the key challenges for improving harmonization of disaster-related statistics is the differences in the use of terminologies in the disaster risk reduction literature and in official statistics.

This working paper presents the results of a desktop review. It provides an overview of the current state of TVET in the Asia-Pacific region. In it we describe the characteristics that make up national systems of technical and vocational education and training (NSTVET). This includes its policy and funding mechanisms, its responsiveness to the needs of stakeholders and its inclusiveness or otherwise in diverse societies.

This report provides an overview of the various existing and proposed unemployment protection schemes in Asia. These schemes play a key role for women and men of working age by stabilizing their incomes in the event of unemployment.

This brief introduces the case of streamlining and automating procedures for agricultural trade in the Philippines. In particular, this brief outlines the implementation of the Department of Agriculture (DA) Trade System, which seeks to automate processes for the trade regulatory agencies involved in agricultural trade and to facilitate the use of electronic documents and procedures. By considering the case of the Philippines, this brief highlights some of the key challenges and success factors for implementing automated systems for agrifood trade.